Narrative

In March 1999 I found myself wedged in a sandy chimney, fully-gripped and trembling, five hundred feet off the deck.

Me and my partner Scott were attempting to climb The Thunderbird Wall, a grade VI backcountry behemoth in Zion National Park’s Kolab Canyon. The face, which is among the highest sandstone walls in the world, had only been climbed twice since Jeff Lowe and Cactus Bryan made the first attempt in 1971. Scott had been to Zion once before. I had never stood in a pair of aiders. In hindsight, I can only blame the ignorance of youth for leading me to believe I had any business being on The Thunderbird Wall.

Narrative

Growing up in the Yupik village of St. Mary’s, Danielle Varney was raised on a steady diet of winter camping, and long summer days spent working on the family’s Yukon River fish camp.

These core experiences instilled a work ethic that first carried over into college athletics, and ultimately, mountaineering.

Since that time, Danielle has climbed and explored big Alaskan mountains including Denali, Mt. Drum, as well as a harrowing life-and-death experience on the icy crown of The Chugach , Mount Marcus Baker.

I recently sat down with Danielle to talk about her deep Alaskan roots, as well as the important lessons she’s learned from Alaska’s mountains.

Narrative

On December 2, 2017, I had the great privilege to sit down in front of a live audience at the Alaska Rock Gym, and talk with renowned Alaskan alpinist and explorer, Roman Dial. We had a candid and highly-entertaining conversation that spanned topics including his early years in Fairbanks, his ambitious climbs in The Hayes Range in the 80’s, as well as his forays into hell-biking, tree climbing, and packrafting in the 90’s and beyond.

In some ways, Roman is a larger than life character, with a list of jaw-dropping outdoor achievements to his credit. But as you’ll soon hear, it’s the characters, friends and partners that have helped shape Roman’s life, and ultimately meant the most to him.

Narrative

It’s no accident that Brad Meiklejohn makes his home in a beautiful alpine valley outside of Anchorage, Alaska. An avid pack rafter, climber and skier, Brad has spent much of his life exploring Alaska and other remote corners of the world. But beyond his accomplishments in the outdoors, the mountains have always been a sacred place of reflection and self discovery, attributes that can certainly be traced to his deep family roots.

As a kid, Brad followed his grandmother and cousins on hiking and climbing adventures in The White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was during these formative years that Brad would lay the foundation for his future outdoor ambitions. But more than anything, his family instilled in him a deep loyalty to each other, as well as a sense of duty to protect the natural world they loved.

This way of life was a natural progression for Brad, first as an avid climber, skier, and avalanche forecaster in Utah, then as Alaska Director of The Conservation Fund, a position he’s now held for over 20 years.

But as much fulfillment as his career and personal adventures have brought, there’s been equal amounts of tragedy and sadness. Over the course of Brad’s outdoor career, he’s lost over 30 friends in mountain-related deaths, a toll that has affected him profoundly. But perhaps none of these deaths have affected him more than loss of Kyle Dempster, a young American alpinist with whom he shared a deep family and spiritual connection.

A few months ago, I drove out to Brad’s mountain-side home in the Chugach Mountains, hoping to gain insight into his wilderness adventures, his philosophies about conservation, as well as his meaningful relationship with Kyle.

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Narrative

When I was a kid growing up in Alaska, Vern Tejas was one of my heroes. Back in February of 1988, Tejas made the bold first solo winter ascent of Denali, and in doing so, captured the imagination of all Alaskans, including me.

The Denali climb changed Vern’s life. He wrote books, gave lectures and eventually became one of the most sought after high altitude guides in the world. But Alaska never remained far from Vern’s heart, and he returned each year to guide on The High One. To this date, Tejas has summited the mountain a staggering 57 times. A world record.

I recently had the privilege to sit down with Vern, and talk about his life in and out of the mountains. From his first adventurous forays of hitchhiking around the country, to his 1st winter ascent of the Lowe-Kennedy route on Mount Hunter, Vern is a larger-than-life figure and a great storyteller.

I first came up with the idea to do The Firn Line in September 2016 – really not that long ago when you think about it. I think the truth is that i’d always wanted to somehow combine my love for the mountains with my creative pursuits. I just wasn’t sure how to do it. I guess you could say I had a light bulb moment when I realized that I could combine my passion for storytelling, the mountains, and music all into one creative outlet. Nine months and ten episodes in, I guess you could say I haven’t looked back.

My goal from the get-go was to create a podcast that I would have wanted to listen to back when climbing was the only thing that mattered to me. I’ve thought back to all the endless nights sitting around campfires with friends, all the soggy drives to go ice climbing in Valdez, and all the storm days I whittled away in tents, counting the squares in the ripstop fabric. Back then, I would have loved to have had a podcast like the firn line to listen to.

So as I look back today at the beginning stages of this podcast, or rather, this community, I wanted to share “mixtape” from The Firn Line episodes. Some of these moments are light-hearted, while others are pretty heavy. But like every Firn Line episode you hear, all the clips are genuine, in the moment, and real.

From a young age, Graham Zimmerman was inspired by the rugged peaks of the New Zealand alps, and later, the cascades of Washington and the pacific northwest.

During high school, Graham developed a keen interest in geology and it was then that he would experience his first involvement with mountaineering. But it wasn’t until he returned to New Zealand for University that climbing became the driving force in his life.

Since that time, Zimmerman has honed his craft, and over the last decade he’s pioneered a myriad of exploratory routes in Alaska, Patagonia, and most recently, The Karakoram. But for Graham, it’s not just about climbing. Rather, it’s about living an all-encompassing lifestyle that combines exploration, creativity and challenging alpinism. Getting to the top is one thing, but how you get there is everything.

Last month I sat down to chat with Alaskan climber and mountain explorer Katie Strong. Katie is an ambitious adventurer, as well as a driven environmental lawyer, which means her career often-times takes center stage, leaving her with limited amounts of free time. But that doesn’t keep her from spending time in the mountains. Rather, it just means she has to pack big trips into shorter blocks. Enter the “micro-expedition”.

Growing up in the village of McGrath, Luc Mehl was inspired at a young age by the simplicity of rural living, and the vast Alaskan wilderness surrounding him.

As a teenager, Luc moved to Anchorage to attend high school, and it was during this period that he would first experience rock climbing and other outdoor sports. But at that junction, his passion for academics and learning would take center stage.

After earning his undergraduate degree in geology, Luc attended UC Santa Barbara where he would earn his first master’s degree. But as much as Luc enjoyed school, he’d always struggled to find balance between the rigid structure of academia, and the more dynamic lifestyle he’d known as a kid. Ultimately, he returned to Alaska in 2003, deeply depressed, and unsure which direction to take.

It was during this period, a time Luc refers to as his “dark year”, that he would literally stumble his way into the mountains, only to come out on the other side with a restored sense of purpose, and a new way of living.

Nestled in the heart of the Alaska Range, lies what many believe to be one of the most beautiful mountains in the world: Mount Huntington. Rising on all sides to form a symmetrical pyramid of rock, snow and ice, Huntington has captured the imagination of bold and dedicated alpinists for decades.

When the French Ridge was first climbed in 1964, the mountaineering world took notice. Then just a year later, when a young David Roberts and crew climbed the stunning west face, the mountaineering world was shocked. Both of these climbs raised the standard of what could be done in Alaska’s mountains, as well as setting a precedent for what future alpinists could expect on Huntington: remoteness, sustained, hard climbing, total commitment.

By 2016, most of Huntington’s major features had been climbed. But one line, perhaps the most committing of them all, had yet to be ascended: The complete south ridge. Rising nearly 7,000 feet, the south ridge follows a serpentine spine of four jagged sub-peaks, each connected by delicate gendarmes and stacked cornices. Of the south ridge, David Roberts wrote, “It was not so much a ridge as five separate, serrated peaks, each increasingly higher.” Although a few teams had ascended the upper south ridge of Huntington over the years, few parties had considered a go at the complete south ridge. That is until this year.

Over a stretch of perfect weather in April 2017, American alpinists Jess Roskelly and Clint Helander made the first ascent of the complete south ridge in a single 5-day push. The climb was everything the duo had anticipated and more, pushing- the limits of their endurance, and forcing them to commit psychologically in a way neither of them had experienced in the past.

A few days later after they got down from the climb, I sat down with Jess and Clint in Anchorage, to recount this once in a lifetime adventure. The interview picks up on the second day of their trip, as they are crossing the east fork of the Tokositna Glacier, and starting the initial climbing up the first peak of the south ridge of Huntington.

Mark Westman is one of Alaska’s most prolific alpinists. On Denali alone, Westman has climbed a myriad of monumental routes including the Cassin Ridge, Isis Face, Denali Diamond and Slovak Direct. He’s also climbed a number of important routes on other Alaska Range peaks including Mount Hunter, Mount Silverthrone and Mount Huntington.

On episode 05, Westman traces his roots in the outdoors, the important partnerships in his life and the challenges he’s faced in and out of the mountains.

In February, 2016 Dusty Eroh, Andrew Burr, Scott Adamson and Todd Tumolo rode, pushed and postholed their fatbikes up the Nizina River to the mythical frozen waterfalls of the Chitistone valley. Equal parts climbing and comedy, the trip was an authentic and memorable Alaskan adventure.

In Episode 04, Dusty tells the story first-hand, reflects on his time with Scott and discusses how he got his nickname, “Dirty D.”

Growing up in the wilds of Alaska, Charlie Sassara always yearned for adventure. But it wasn’t until he found the “expression” of climbing that his life’s path changed forever. From early harrowing ascents on Mount Deborah and Denali in winter, to visionary climbs and bold rescues in the Wrangell-St. Elias, Charlie is a compelling character, and one of Alaska’s most enduring alpinists.